Re-thinking my thinking process...

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These last few weeks I have been rethinking a lot of my personal values.  Bob and I felt the Lord calling us to make some changes in our life.  Bob mentioned that he's felt God calling him to be more frugal.  I have been feeling the same way, but have been really struggling with the idea of frugality.  It's not that I'm opposed to "thrift" or that I don't want to be a good steward.  It's that the whole concept of "Frugality" somehow equates itself with deprivation.  When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot, and when I had young kids, we had even less, so the whole idea of "doing without" has been very stressful.  Then, out of the blue, I came across this wonderful term: "Voluntary Simplicity".   Volunteering to live a simpler life filled with those things that are important to us.  A simpler life that isn't cluttered with stuff that gets in the way of the important things, such as relationships with family and friends, time with God and cultivating a good attiude.  I need to reavaluate my homelife, my habit of collecting clutter, and even the way I spend my time.

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Changes

We've had a very busy fall.  In fact it was so busy, that Christmas was over before it even began.  Everything was scheduled so close together, that I was spending at least 3 nights out a week.  We had concerts to perform at, dinners to go to, church activities, and homeschool activities...and it didn't help that Erik picked up a part time job along the way.  Our home renovations basically ground to a halt during that time, and stuff started to pile up and take over our rebuilt area.  We used to store everything in Emily's bedroom, since she was away at school, but the week before she returned home for the holidays, we had to move it all into the mudroom.  There came a point where I just couldn't function anymore and I was ready to tear my hair out.  Too much stuff!
I am now in the process of trying to declutter.  At the same time, Bob and I have started a regualr time of devotions.  It has really helped to calm me down.  Lately, we have been wanting to store more food and have found an interesting program (which we are modifying to suit our life) where you spend an extra $5.00 a week, to build up emergency food stores.  Now, in case you are getting the wrong idea, I should clarify here that in no way are we becoming survivalists, nor can we put stock in stuff we accumulate to keep us "safe".  Only God alone can do that.  However, we have been feeling the need to be better stewards of what we have, and since we live out in the country and tend to have really bad blizzards and Bob does work a job that can be prone to occasional lay-offs, it would be nice to have a fully stocked pantry.  The last time Bob was laid off, we had quite a few groceries already, so we didn't need to buy anything except milk, eggs, cheese and lettuce, until he got his first unemployment cheque.  Since these cheques can take quite a while to come, it was a comfort not worrying about food.  I am also planning on doing a lot more cooking from scratch, which should be healthier and better for us.

Oooops!

It certainly has been a while since I've posted.  We were able to get more chickens and some of those chickens allowed themselves to get eaten by more racoons.  We managed to keep twelve of them alive and they are now butchered and sitting in my freezer.  They did tend to get pretty big...about the size of small turkeys.  Nice and tender! 

This summer was one of the businest ones we've had in a long time. We spent about every weekend working on the renovations, going to an SCA event or getting ready for Pennsic. 

The king and Queen of the East in a royal procession.



Erik fighting Oswin in a personal challenge match, after the Saracen vs Crusader battle.

For those of you who don't know what "Pennsic" is, picture 10800 medieval reenactors all together at a camp ground for up to two weeks, doing the following: fighting, fencing, dancing, singing, eating, shopping, camping, creating, shooting arrows, throwing weapons at targets, and socializing. It was sooo much fun, I want to do it again.

Erik finally got authorized to fight "Heavy list" (that is fight in armour with rattan weapons) at Great North Eastern War this summer.  He was the 6th youth fighter authorized, as they had just changed the rules to allow 17 year olds to fight.  This was unexpected, as previously, you had to be 18 years old to fight.  Needless to say, Erik has jumped into this sport with enthusiasm and focus.

Over the next few months, I am hoping to get some pictures up and catch up in all our happenings over the summer and early fall.

Chickens, chickens everywhere...

A racoon got into our chickens, the night before last.  What a mess!  Racoons and vicious creatures, dragging some off, taking a leg off another, ripping a head off of another...all 25 of them dead.  What a waste of time, effort and money.  Let's pray that there are some extra at the feed store with today's delivery.

   For Father's Day, we spent the afternoon at Kings Landing.  Emily is now working there for the summer and we wanted to have a visit with her, since she is staying in F'ton with my Mom and Dad for the summer and we don't get to see her as often.  We were able to spend her break with her, and toured some of the other Kings Landing houses.

  We were also able to visit with some other friends and acquaintances that we met at the Landing.  You never know who will be there!

This is the Moorehouse, the family home that she is helping to interpret this summer.  They are interpreting the year 1820, even though none of the staff in the house are dresses in 1820's fashions.  (Being a reenactor and living history interpreter myself, I am sensitive to matters of historical fashion).  In fact, I am surprised that in a village that takes such pains to be as historically correct in so many other areas, let it slide when it comes to correct dress.  There just doesn't seem to be much consistancy.   I saw a beautiful Victorian dress in obvious polycotton mix, a man dressed in a Regency/Georgian mix (kind of like a "Fashion Frankenstein"), gowns obviously lacking in enough peticoats to hold it's shape, etc... 
  My pet peeve for today: Daycaps!  ARRRRGGGGG!  They have several people throughout the village wearing DRAWSTRING MOBCAPS!!!  They are totally undocumentable, unauthentic and should be an embarassement to all but the most rank beginners (and then it is only forgiven because they just don't know any better and it is hoped that someone would gently guide them to a better choice)...and they don't even attempt to hide the drawstring with a ribbon.  The least they could do would be to provide each girl with a period satin ribbon, attached with a few stitches to the back of the cap.  They could then draw it up to the front of the cap and secure it with a bow, thus hiding the drawstring and making it appear to be more of a corect looking cap. *Sigh*
Okay, ranting aside, I still had a wonderful visit.  My daughter is becoming a good cook over the open fire (I got to sample the cake that she had baked).  She has had a few cooking mishaps, which means she takes after me.  I still remember the first time I tried to bake a pie in the woodstove for Emily's 11th Birthday...it was so burnt that it was black all the way through.  Emily's grandmother (a wonderful woman) came to the rescue with a birthday cake for Emily's birthday.  She set it on the car while we were busy greeting each other and unnoticed by the family, Nan (our Mama goat), slowly sauntered up and started to nibble on one side of the cake.  To her surprise, instead of tasty B'day cake, all she got was a mouthful of plastic wrap.  We managed to rescue the cake with one side only slightly crumbled and still had an enjoyable Birthday celebration.  It wasn't too long after that mishap that I managed to master cooking on the woodstove, and could produce the most wonderful oatmeal cookies that I have NEVER been able to reproduce in the electric oven.